Friday 22 February 2013

A modest proposal (Does Democracy still exist?)

After the murder of Caesar in 44 B.C., romans all too eagerly let Octavian take over in nearly all fields of government. He cleverly first conducted successful military operations all over the empire, then, to the astonishment of every Roman, declared he would retire. The Romans, weary of the Republic and yearning for another strong personality tried to woo him back into government, Octavian eagerly gave in to their wish, having attributed almost all military and political powers to him without actually holding any of the offices usually required for these powers. He thus ruled Rome de facto, while in iure making it seem like he was humble in not accepting any public office.

Mario Monti, quite aware of history, is currently trying the same strategy- after a mostly positive run, he declares he is retiring, but willing to come back if the people want him to. This game made Octavian and will make Monti - in the case of a reelection - look like the savior that comes to free his people despite having better things to do; a martyr so to say.

It is telling that history should repeat itself once more in this way. All over the world, political leaders try this trick. Not the least, Jean-Claude Juncker, having used his high approval rates to his advantage before by declaring that if his party wouldn't win the national elections he might leave for a career at the European Union- resulting in all Luxemburgers voting for him and his party because they think they simply can't afford to lose him as head of the government. 

Does this game with the electorate prove strong leadership though? No, it proves high manipulative skills, it proves that democracy is dead.

One could easily blame politicians playing the martyr card, but the real problem is that the electorate likes to play along. The people want a martyr. They feel that as long as they've got a strong political figure that decides to stay in office to fight for them while they could just as easily retire proves that they, as a people, are very special.

As with any cult, its members want sacrifices. In the cult of democracy, this sacrifice seems to have to be a Jesus-like figure, a man or woman that takes all the sins of the country on his or her shoulder and does so with a smile. People are not interested anymore in electing people that will represent their ideas in parliament, they are interested in making politics televisable, having charismatic leaders - never mind their message.

When Germany finally had a charismatic politician that was doing well with the media (Karl-Theodor von Guttenberg), they lifted him so high upon a pedestal it couldn't have surprised anyone anymore when he fell from the lofty heights. His downfall, too, is characteristic of modern democracy however. We strive for transparency, no matter what the price.

While transparency is in general a development in politics one should welcome, we want transparency for all the wrong reasons. Once more one can see an electorate so conditioned by modern television that they live for the thrill of seeing the rapid rise of a star and the sudden fall of a once beloved character. We want transparency not because we want to see that our politicians are clean. We all secretly hope that each and every one of them has dirty secrets we can expose so we can report about them, humiliate them. It makes us feel better about our own lives.

I therefore propose to do away with elections as we know them as they seem to no longer serve our needs. In this surreal world where keeping our own privacy is the most holy good, but exposing others' private lives is the highest pleasure, the only format that seems to work is the casting show.
Let's only hope that after democracy, casting shows will lose their appeal as well, because at the end of the day the people electing our government are the same people that vote for the winner of a casting show. The outcome of both votes seems deeply troubling to me. 

Dark indeed is the future of a democracy where the electorate loses all interest in the outcome of the only meaningful exercise of its power in a period of 4 to 5 years, this power being restricted to the sole picking of its representatives.

Rome had a well functioning republic for a long time, yet got weary of democracy in the long run and slowly established a monarchy instead. We may think having had revolutions in the recent past that lead us to democracy is the ultimate peak of our development, but history shows it could well go back into the opposite direction. A democracy has to be taken care of by the electorate like a garden. If the gardner decides to look the other way for several years, weeds are free to grow and it will be hard to tame them once they've spread throughout the entire garden.

Thursday 31 January 2013

Keep morals out of the law!

There is a recent trend to mix morals and law again. I say again because this used to be the norm and it has been a tedious process to finally separate the two. Going back to putting morals into the law would be a regression of the most horrible kind. Let's start out with some history:

In Hebrew law which is believed to be given by God, morals and religion are obviously not detachable from the law itself. These laws serve as a guideline to a pious life as well as a safeguard of peace in society and are still strictly followed by a lot of Jews all over the world. Many of these laws or rules were taken into Christian doctrine where through the powerful position of the Church in the middle ages they made their way into European ius commune; law that was applicable almost everywhere in Europe. A lot of these laws served as moral guidelines, the church tried to steer the people onto a certain moral path that it, the church, would ultimately profit from. Of course this manipulation has had some positive effects as well. It is undoubtedly true that the christian values of charity are the basis for the modern European "welfare state". But imposing values upon people seems to me to be a bit beside the point. If people only do certain things out of fear for punishment and not because they genuinely believe that what they do is right, society hasn't actually changed for the better and this oppression of free will might actually hinder real thought progression in the minds of people. We are alway keener on an idea if it is our own or we have at least learned to accept it as part of our value system without any imposition from above.

The mixing of morals and law has a strong tradition in Europe, but one of the achievements of the enlightenment period was to do away with that. Immanuel Kant was the first to publicly opine that morals and law should in no way be mixed but regarded as separate entities.
Indeed most people today would agree with this statement. Seeing something as morally wrong or socially unacceptable does not immediately mean that punishment by the state for such an unacceptable behavior should follow.
An example of this is cheating. Whether one is in a marriage or a non-marital relationship, cheating is generally viewed to be socially unacceptable. Yet most people wouldn't want cheating to be punishable by law.

Here I come to another point. Incarceration is the ultima ratio of the state. Penal punishment serves as a last resort if all else has failed to:
1) defend justice against injustice
2) make it clear to the offender that his behavior is unacceptable and won't go unpunished
3) secure the public by taking a dangerous individual off the streets
4) prevent future deeds
5) (most recently) give the victim a sense of its grief being taken seriously by the state

It is thus very important for a society to think hard about which actions to incorporate in their penal catalogue and which not.

In the light of recent events such as demands for a definition of mariage in a certain way in the law and making other acts which only a certain part of the population subjectively finds offensive punishable by law, it has become necessary to outline the progress we have made since the middle ages and make people see the benefits of a strict separation between law and morals.
Only a society which knows this separation can say that its citizens are free.

If we don't want to regress into a society which doesn't know religious freedom, freedom of speech and of opinion, then we need to fight against a moralization of the law.

An introduction to my views

If I had to describe myself and my views, I'd probably start like this: It's complex and I really don't know myself. I guess I'd say I'm somewhat of a liberal agnostic driven by the catholic teachings of charity and "love thy neighbor". A lot of people have the problem that they do not know what they stand for. Uncertainty is normal and the ability to change one's opinions is an important one to have. Being open to change and debating problems is the essence of being a participating citizen in a modern democratic state.
To quote Thomas Paine: "You will do me the justice to remember, that I have always strenuously supported the Right of every Man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it."
Certain things are however very clear to me. These are the positions I am willing to push into the public's conscience and thereby hope to provoke a change in people's conscience:
- Every gay couple needs to acquire the right to marry with the same legal and tax benefits as heterosexual couples (including the right to adopt) and most importantly the same social acceptance.
-Every human being in distress needs to get support from any country embracing the principles of liberty; asylum seekers should be given better support and receive help to integrate into the society of the country that is hosting them; once they have successfully integrated they should not be forced to return to their home country if they do not wish to do so, even if the situation there has turned back to normal.
-Liberty does not mean being able to do everything without limits or boundaries; Liberty is living in cooperation with other people in society thus weaving a security and support net together which enables one to take risks and try to achieve ones personal goals, knowing that if one should fail one isn't left to the dogs but that society takes care of one and enables one to start anew.
-The state, though providing a social support system and ensuring infrastructure and commerce's well-being, has no right whatsoever to get involved in the core issues of human liberty of conscience: sexual orientation, religion, philosophy, choice of trade, choice of attire and political opinion (in speech, written form and action).
-Justice needs to become more efficient, quicker to provide verdicts to the quarreling parties without the decisions losing any of their quality.
-Every person doing the same job should receive the same pay regardless of age, skin-color, gender or sexual orientation. (Furthermore discrimination on the job based on having certain viruses such as HIV needs to stop.)
...

This list is not finished and may be subject to change as I evolve my opinions.
These seem to be core issues, however, which I think should be prioritized in political debate.
This blog should serve as a platform for discussion, so after I publish posts, feel free to comment and engage in dialogue with me or even share my posts to spark a debate elsewhere.